Dead Trigger Review

December 4th, 2012 - Very few iOS games are able to give the first impression that Dead Trigger can. Dead Trigger is a beautiful mobile shooter that easily joins the ranks of games like N.O.V.A. 3 and Modern Combat 3, visually. Dead Trigger is a zombie shooting arcade game that if not for a few irritating flaws, would be a near-perfect first person shooter.

Dead Trigger uses a map-style interface that works well, everything from the shop, bank, casino and missions are easily accessible and intuitive. Now, none of this would be relevant if Dead Trigger’s controls were bad, and MADFINGER games made sure this was the most accessible FPS on mobile devices. You can completely customize the control layout if you wish, but the initial set up works marvellous. You move with the left side of the screen and aim with the right. Items, shooting, reloading and iron-sights are all elegantly placed along the screen and never seem to be in the way.

Dead Trigger’s “story” cannot live up to the games presentation and gameplay however. The text description before each mission tells the story of a group of survivors who go about in this zombie filled apocalypse. You will find yourself clearing areas of zombies, retrieving needed supplies, rescuing survivors, and helping a scientist develop a cure. This all boils down to several dozen 2-6 minute missions that cycle though the same locations and zombies.

As far as the zombies themselves, they move, react, and die, fairly realistically. The zombies are well animated and other than the odd collisional glitch, the zombies perform their job admirably. One drawback however, is the number of zombies on the screen at once. After playing games like Dead Rising and Dead Space it is unacceptable to have a maximum of 5-6 zombies on the screen. While this likely delivers the solid performance for older devices, it remains a disappointment.

Locations range from rooftops, laboratories, underground parkways, airports and more, and while they are all unique and attractive, they do become very repetitive. Even more repetitive, is the small selection of zombies to shoot; featuring a cast of zombies that can be counted on two hands is very disappointing. While both these issues have already been somewhat addressed with updates, the game truly needs more variety.

Weapons are where Dead Trigger really shines. Featuring over 20 unique guns ranging from shotguns, pistols, machine guns, crossbows, chainsaws and everything in between, you will definitely find a set of weapons that suits your play style. Being a “freemium” title, Dead Trigger allows gold, the games secondary currency, to be purchased with real hard-earned cash. While it may seem tempting in the beginning of the game, by level 15 I had most of the perks and items unlocked though regular play anyways.

The biggest disappointment with Dead Trigger is that the story abruptly ends. While this will most likely be updated with new content, it's unacceptable for a game to not have any kind of ending or even an alert notifying the player it is almost over. While you can still complete endless random missions, they become repetitive and feel like grinding after a few missions.

Being a now free to play game, Dead Trigger better still be on your must download list. The game is able to be under 200mb (compared to other shooters that are nearly 2GB in size). As well, Dead Trigger is a truly universal app, and plays fairly well on just about any device released in the last three years. Combined with the cloud saving option, Dead Trigger is a game you can feel very safe to unload several hours into.

Final

Dead Trigger is a beautiful shooter that despite its unbalanced amount of content, is an absolute blast to play.